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A New Plan for Japan

None of the contenders for prime minister have a reform agenda.

June 22, 2011

It sometimes seems as if there could be nothing more dispiriting than a Japanese leadership race. The bout currently underway is a case in point. Japan faces perhaps the most serious crisis of the postwar period and yet the two top candidates for the premiership have little to offer by way of policy. And the prime minister they're vying to replace—who thwarted a no-confidence motion this month only by promising to resign soon—is tilting at windmills in a more literal sense than you'd think.